I'm led to believe there are one or two REM fans around here. In case no-one's posted before they've announced gigs in Manchester, Cardiff, Southampton and London at the end of August, tickets on sale from Friday at, ahem, £45 a pop.

So if you want to spend far too much money to not quite be able to see a band who aren't as good as they once were, now's your chance.

And I read it in the Grauniad so all details must be true!

(Oh, and I see Johnny Dowd is playing the Boardwalk in May, that'll be better value.....)